The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-06-24
The Necessity of Faith and Prayer
Forcibly Illustrated.
The Story OF Stephen, the Martyr, and the
Pictures of SubIiRe Faith and
TrustFuI Prayer Presented
in His Death.

young mans feet, whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God,
and saying, Lord Jesus receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down and cried with a loud
voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep
Acts, vii, $3.50.
Stephen had been preaching a rousing
sermon, and the people could not stand it.
They resolved to do as men sometimes
would like to do to this day, if they dared,
with some plain preacher of righteous
ness-kiIl him. The only way to silence
this man was to knock the breath out of
him. So they rushed Stephen out Of the
gates of the city, and with curse,
and whoop, and below they brought
him to the cliff, as was the
custom when they wanted to take away
life by stoning. Having brought him to
the edge of the cliM they pushed him off.
After he had fallen they came and looked
down, and seeing that he was not dead,
they began to drop stones upon him, stone
after stone, stone after stone. Amid this
horrible rain of missiles Stephen clam
bers up on his knees and folds his hands,
while the blood drips from his temples to
his cheeks, from his cheeks TO his gar
ments, from his garments to the ground;
and then, looking up, he makes two pray
ers-one for himself and one for his MUIR
derers:
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
That was for himself.
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
That was for his assailants. Then, from
pain and loss of blood, he swooned aw ay
and fell asleep.
want to show you to dav five pictures !;
Stephen gazing into Heaven; Steph en-
looking at Christ; Stephen stoned !;
stephen in his dying prayer; Stephe n
asleep.
First, look at Stephen gazing into
Heaven. Before you take a leap, you
want to know where you are going to
land. Before you climb ladder, you
want to know to what point the ladde er
reaches And it was right that Stephen,
within few moments of Heaven, should
be gazing into it. We would all do well
to be found in the same posture. A man
of large wealth may have statuary in the
hall and paintings in the sitting-roOm, and
works of art in all parts of the house, but
he has chief pictures in the art gallery,
/ and there, hour after hour, you walk with
catalogue and glass and ever increasing g
admiration. Well, Heaven is the gallery
where G cd has gathered the chief treas
ures of his realm. The whole universe is
his pa; ce. In this lower room where
we we stop there are many adorn-
ments-tessellated floor of amethyst and
blossom, and on the winding cloud-stair 5
are stretched out canvas on which COM
and gold. But Heavon is the gallery in
which the chief glories are gathered.
There are the brightest robes. There are
the richest crowns. There are the high
est exhilarations. John says of it:
The kings of the earth shall bring their honor
and glory into it.
And 1 see the procession forming, and
in the line come all mpires, and the stars
spring up into an arch for the hosts to
sound Of earthquake and the pitch of
avalanche from the mountains, and the
flag they bear is the fame of a consumin g
world, and all Heaven turns out with
harps and trumpets and myriad-voiced
acclamation of angelic dominion to well
come them in, and 50 the kings of the
earth bring their honor and glory into it.
Do you wonder that good people often
stand like Stephen, looking into Heaven4
We have great many friends there.
There is not a man in this house to-day so
isolated in life but there is some one in
heaven with whom he once shook hands.
As a man gets older, the number Of his
celestial acquaintances very rapidly
multiplies. We have not had one glimpse
of them since the night we kissed them
goodbye and they went away, but still
we stand gazing into Heaven. As when
some Of our friends go across the sea, we
stand on the deck, or on the steam-tug,
and watch them, and after awhile the
hull of the vessel disappears, and then
there is only a patch of sail on the sky,
and soon that is gone, and they are all out
of sight, and yet we stand looking in the
same direction; so when our friends go
away from US into the future world
we keep looking down through
the narrows, aud gazing and gazing as
though we expected they would come
out and stand on some evening cloud, and
give US one glimpse of their blissful and
transfgured faces.
While you long to join their companion
ship and the years and the days go with
such tedlum that they break your heart,
and the viper of pain and sorrow and
bereavement keeps gnawing at your
v1tals, you still stand, like Stephen, gaZ
ing into Heaven. You wonder If they
have changed since you saw them last.
You wonder if they would recognize your
face now, so changed has it been with
trouble. You wonder if, amid the
myriad delights they have, they care as
much for you as they used to when they
gave you helping hand, and put their
shoulder under your burdens. You W on
der if they look any older; and some
times, in the evening-tide, when the
house is all quiet, you wonder if you
should call them by their first name if
they would not answer; and perha ps
some time you do make the experiment,
and when no one but God and yourself
are there you distinctly call there names,
and listen, and wait, and sit, gazing into
Heaven.
Pass on now, and see Stephen looking
upon Christ. My text days he saw the
Son of Man at the right hand Of God.
Just how Christ looked in this world, just
how he looks in Heaven, we can not say.
A writer in the time Of Christ says, de-
scribing the Saviour's personal appear
ance that he had blue eyes and light COM
plexion, and very graceful structure;
but l suppose it was all guess work The
painters Of the different ages have tried
to imagine the features of Christ, and
put them on canvas; but we viii have to
wait until with our own eyes we see him
and with our own ears we can hear him.
And vet there is a way of seeing and
hearing him now. have to tell you that
unless you see and hear Christ on earth
you will never see and hear him in
Heaven. Lookt There he Is. Behold the
Lamb OF God. Can you not see hint
Then pray to God TO take the scales on
your eyes. Look that way-try 70 look
that way. His voice comes down to you
this day-comes down to the blindest, TO
the deafest soul, saying:
Look unto ne, all re ends OF the earth and
be ye saved, for I am Cod and there Is none
else.
Proclamation Of universal emancipa-
ton for ali slaves. Proclamation Of uni
yersal amnesty for ALI rebels Ahasuerus
gathered the BabylonIsh mobiles 70 his
table: George ]. entertained the lords Of
England at a banquet; Napoleon Ill well
coined the Czar Of Russia and the Sultan